Peer-Reviewed Article ISSN: 2574-3465 Print/ ISSN: 2574-3481 Online Volume 3, Issue 2 (2019), pp. 109-119 © Journal of Underrepresented and Minority Progress http://ojed.org/jump Critical Pedagogy and its Implication in the Classroom Muhammad Sharif Uddin Morgan State University, USA ABSTRACT One of the most significant goals of teaching is to promote the critical thinking capability of students and thus, to create good citizens for a just society. Classroom teaching must also awaken the values of justice and equality in student minds. Critical pedagogy is a vital teaching strategy, one designed to strengthen the awareness of learners about justice and social equality, while improving their knowledge. Teachers today are busy in the classroom; they prepare the student for high stakes testing and, in the process, work to save the school from closing. As a result, teaching is most often test- oriented rather than knowledge-centered. This paper aims to provide a few examples of how several teachers use critical strategies in the classroom and how these teaching methods affect student thinking and learning positively. Lastly, the paper argues that classroom teachers should employ critical pedagogy in the classroom to prepare students to gain critical thinking skills and to help create a just society. Keywords: banking model of education, critical pedagogy, classroom teaching. INTRODUCTION Creating knowledge and enhancing student critical thinking capability are central to contemporary notions of schooling. In the 21st century, school authorities tend to measure teacher effectiveness and student achievement via various high-stakes tests. As a result, many teachers are not 109 interested in engaging students meaningfully in learning; instead, they are busy preparing students for these tests, which will also enable to school to avoid closing. Frequently, teachers look for strategies to employ in the classroom to help students earn a good score, not simply to enhance their critical thinking capabilities, norms, values, or to bring about overall positive behavioral change. However, preparations for these high-stakes tests are neither helping many students in achieving good scores nor are they improving the critical awareness of students. Preparing for high stakes testing is similar to Freire’s (2016) Banking Concept of Education, which is a teacher-centered education, and memorizing is the primary strategy. Freire and many other scholars (e.g., Dewey, Gramsci) wanted to change the trend of transferring knowledge and argued for creating knowledge through various learner-centered activities like dialogue and problem-posing. Freire defined these learner-centered strategies as “Critical Pedagogy.” In this paper, I look into Freire’s critical pedagogy through a critical literature review from scholarly journal articles and books. First, the paper shows the history of the critical pedagogy movement; second, it explains what critical pedagogy is; third, it unveils wrong notions about the politicization of critical pedagogy; and finally, the paper presents some examples on different Freire’s strategies that have been employed by the teachers in the classroom. HISTORY OF CRITICAL PEDAGOGY In the middle of the 20th century, the critical thinking movement in education started in Europe while Fascism and Stalinism were dominating the continent. The governmental domination over the economy, the lack of social equality, the presence of social and cultural hegemony, the importance of labor movements, and the plethora of governmental power exercised dictatorially were main spurs to the developments of the critical thinking movement in education. Critical thinking originated in the Frankfort School and related to scholarly concerns about ideology and principles of education. According to Mahmoudi, Khoshnood, and Babael (2014), Habermas, Horkheimer, Adorno, and Gramsci were the pioneers of Critical Theory movements. The focus of the Critical Theory is to understand the oppression of the individual, group, and society. These oppressions might be self-imposed or created via external forces. The critical theorists wanted to change the society by helping the oppressed to become emancipated; they engaged in a critique of a wide range of personal, social, cultural forces. In 2017 Kaya and Kaya identified Apple, Darder, Giroux, Gramsci, Illich, Kincheloe, McLaren, and many other philosophers as the fundamental theorists of Critical Pedagogy. Critical Pedagogy developed from Critical Theory as thinkers 110 sought to understand better the existence of social dominance and to give students a voice to challenge oppression. Critical knowledge is also helpful for the privileged group, which can use it to realize that they are violating the rights of others. Paulo Freire gave the critical thinking movement a new birth and he brought critical pedagogy into the mainstream of education. He became an iconic figure in contemporary education due to his critical pedagogy movement. His bitter experiences in his homeland, Brazil, inspired him to seek a way out, to break the silence of students. He noticed that students were passive learners in the classroom. They had no voice and no choice. They memorized what their teacher transferred to them. It was teacher-centered education, and Freire defined it as the “Banking Concept of Education,” a system in which teachers just deposited their knowledge in the heads of students (Freire, 2016, p.73). There was no creation of knowledge, and there was no intellectual and social development of the students. Freire realized that the social hegemony, oppression, and inequality would be continuing if the oppressed did not get their voice. He also realized that ignorance, illiteracy, and a culture of silence were the outcome of the economic condition of the oppressed, even though these people did not realize that they were deprived of their rights (Mahmoudi et al., 2014). To give the oppressed a voice and understanding, Freire established a gradual cultural revolution, one designed to liberate people from oppression, domination, and ignorance. He then introduced critical pedagogy in the education system. WHAT CRITICAL PEDAGOGY IS Critical Pedagogy is an effective strategy to enhance the critical thinking capability of students and to generate positive behavioral change in students’ lives. This is a strategy that enhances student consciousness, understanding, and judgment. It gives students a voice to speak in the classroom. Freire (2001) defined critical pedagogy as a critical approach to education, highlighting the importance of having learners engage actively in their learning process, and being able to find and develop their own opinion and position. Kaya and Kaya (2017) explain that critical pedagogy is a concept that addressed the problem of education and the education system itself. The purpose of critical pedagogy is to signal how questions of audience voices, power, and evaluation can actively work to construct schools into an environment where teachers and students can question the relationship between theory and practice, critical analysis and common sense, learning and social change (p. 182). 111 Freire (2001) identified critical pedagogy as “a correct way of thinking that goes beyond the ingenious.” It must be produced by the learners in communion with the teacher responsible for their education, he wrote ( p. 43). Freire argued for learner-centered education, calling for a dialogue between teacher and student and he argued for problem-posing education. The dialogue-based approach is to engage students in questioning and exchanging ideas, to inquire and to learn. Problem-posing education is designed to engage the student in solving any problem through brainstorming. John Dewey also argued for child-centered education for creating the child as a good citizen. So, the main point of critical pedagogy is to engage students in learning and to make them active learners. WHY CRITICAL PEDAGOGY IS IMPORTANT Breunig (2005) says that the intended aim of critical pedagogy in education is to create a just society. Freire’s ideology behind critical pedagogy was to liberate people from social and cultural hegemony, not to capture political power. Freire motivated illiterate peasants to break their silenced culture. He also urged the employment of a wide variety of different interactive teaching strategies (e.g., dialogical, problem-posing) in the classroom to enhance students’ critical awareness. However, many scholars have spread a political banner over Freire’s critical pedagogy theory. They point out that critical pedagogy arises from Marxism. For this reason, Freire was in exile for eight years from his homeland, Brazil, and he was not allowed to enter the United States. Kaya and Kaya (2017) explain that Freire advocated education for the liberation for the poor and the oppressed through critical pedagogy. Mahmoudi et al. (2014) say that schools should be considered as places for social change and evolution. Schools should not only foster critical thinking among students, but they should also teach how to change the surrounding environments. Freire’s notion was to wake the oppressed people, to help them to understand that they were oppressed. On the other hand, Freire also wished that the oppressors would realize that they were oppressing the underprivileged. Freire wanted a society where every person had equal rights and opportunities. Thus, he advocated for an education which would empower the oppressed and would give an understanding